Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-02-01
(Consinxed from yesterdos.)
LITTLE TU'PENNY.
By 8. Barring GOULD.
CHAPTER XIV.


tached villas. Two or three were let,
others were to be let, just built, Others in
course of erection. The half house adj
joining the lodging of the Beauforts was
unoccupied. Beaufort house, Piccadilly,
had resolved itself into No. 4, Woodbine
Cottages, Lower Norwood. That where
she was was Lower Norwood Trip did not
know She knew she was somewhere in
the suburbs Of London, but on which side
of the Thames she was unaware.
She retreated to her room, and locked
herself in. She was very indignant at
the treatment to which she had been sub
jected, at the deception that had been
played on her, resolved to come to an ex-
PLANTATION with her husband, and insist
ON being allowed to communicate with
her parents.
What was Mr. Beaufort's business,
That he had some she made no doubt.
Who were his companions? On what
were they engaged at night? Why did
she see no one2 Why did none of her
own sex visit herr Why was she watched,
and every effort made to keep her pris-
oner in the houses These were questions
that worked to the surface in her mind.
They were questions that must be an
swered; she would insist on having them
satisfactorily answered.
Trip may have been foolishly brought
up, reared to love show, to think much
of herself to be greedy of admiration,
but there was character in her-good
stuff that had not been brought out. She
had shown determination in the matter
of the ride on the sails OF the windmill.
That showed how she could stick to an
idea when she had got hold of 1t, and
carry it out.
For the first week Trip had been be-
wildered, and unable to take her bear
ingS. Cast into a new world, she had
been inclined to lean on her husband, to
trust him, though disappointed. But she
speedily found that he was not to be
trusted, that she could trust no one but
herself. If she leaned on him, he would
let her fall. She must gather up all her
resolution, and under the strange cir
cumstanccs in which she found herself,
act for herself
She sat in her room thinking, but I'M
able to decide on her course further than
to wait her HUSBANDS return and seek an
explanation. What steps to take should
that explanation not be satisfactory, she
left for the future to decide.
Hours passed and he did not return
She asked the woman when he was likely
herself for having asked the question
for having admitted that this person was
more in his confidence than herself The
surly woman gave Trip her meals as
usual. and the poor young wife made
vain efforts to swallow them
Ten o'clock came, and her husband had
not returned.
Trip ran down stairs, and told the
woman, Nelly, not to sit up, she would.
"Sit upr' sneered Nelly. you'll
have to sit up all night, then. He won't
be back till morning, if he comes at all,
and when he comes he won't want you"
Trip hared up. "You insoent woman,
how dare you speak to me like that
You know where Mr. Beaufort is? Where
Is he2''
Then the woman put her hands on her
hips, looked at the poor girl, and burst
into derisive laughter.
Unable to endure her offensive conduct
longer, Trip ran upstairs and threw her
self on her bed, and burst into bitter
weeping through humiliation and dis
tress.
Now she remembered Joe's warning,
how he had bid her beware of the man
who had bewitched her with appeals to
her vanity. Now she felt what fatal
full solid Joes offer. 1t was too late. AS
she had made her bed, so must she lie in
it. But, oh! what bed of thorns it
was already proving itself to be.
Oh, that dear old windmill! The
happy hours she had spent in it, the
crcalng of the timberin the stress of the
wind, the whirr of the wings. the grind
of the wheels, the throb of the shifter
the rattle of the linking box How all
these sounds came back to her in the
night. She had lowered the gas to pea
and lay on her bed thinking, her brain
wide awake in nervous excitation.
Oh! the pleasant smell of the flour,
and the bean field in June in full bios
soml
How sweet Joe's honey had beenl No
honey like it in the world. He kept in
the mill some bread and plate of comb,
and he had allowed Trip always, when
she came to the mill, to eat his bread
and honey.
She thought of the little house with
its tile roof and the sunhowers and
hives; and the willows about the garden
growing out of the edge of the dixie, and
of the duckwced, and the white shining
flowers studding the water like stars
studGing the sky. Then she left the bed.
and in the half darkness groped in her
work box till she found her whistle; and
now she took a piece of string and fas-
tened it to the whistle, and hun i, it round
her neck. 1t should hang there, dear
remembrance of happy Old times, of in
nocent sunny childhood, when she had
no sorrows, no dark and dreadful future
before her.
She threw herself on the he'd again
and found her pillow wet with tears
she put the wns,Ic 20 mel IIrs, not 10
pipe loud on it, but to try it to call UP
old associations Alas, the whistle would
not act, the back was split She had
piped the last call on it that night in the
park when Joe had refused to return.
piped her last chance away; now the
voice was gone from the whistle, and
/ with its failure it appeared to Trip
as if every hope was gone from her
Who could help her now? Algernon Beau
fort was her lawful husband and protec-
tor What could Joe do for her? or her
father and mother?
Oh the shame of having to return to
Ringwood with the confession that she
had been duped, How could she face
Joe9 How bear the jeers of those who
had encouraged her, yet had secretly en-
We'd her, and would rejoice over her dis
appointment?
Eleven O'Clock had struck Twelve
midnight was past. One o'clock. Still
her husband was not returned She
knew that the woman Nelly was below,
awake and waiting for her masters re-
turn. What was more, she was making
up great fire in the stove in the dining
room.
Nelly was much older than Mr.. Beau